3D Game Environments: Create Professional 3D Game Worlds” by Luke Ahearn is a comprehensive guide for artists and designers who want to build AAA-quality game worlds from concept to finished asset. Using Photoshop and 3ds Max as his primary tools, Ahearn teaches readers to create realistic textures from photo sources and use various techniques to portray dynamic, believable game worlds, covering everything from a steamy jungle to a modern city to a sci-fi space station. The book walks through the full production pipeline — planning, 3D modeling, UV layout, and texture creation — with hands-on exercises and projects at the end of each section so readers can practice building different world genres. Drawing on his 20+ years of professional game development experience across titles like Dead Reckoning and America’s Army, Ahearn also offers practical advice on efficiency and optimization for real-time 3D game engines, making this a valuable resource for both students and working environment artists
Table of Contents
Section I: The Basics
- Introduction
- Game World Optimizations
- 3D Concepts
- Shaders and Materials
Section II: Low-Polygon Environments with Simple Shaders
- Planning the Low-Polygon Urban Environment
- Modeling the Large Urban Environment
- Texturing the Large Urban Environment
Section III: Terrain, Foliage, and More Advanced Asset Creation
- Terrain
- Filling the World — Trees, Plants, Rocks, Water, and Sky
- Modeling and Texturing the Jungle Base
- Advanced Foliage and Environmental Detailing
Additional Topics
- Level Design Fundamentals for Environment Artists
- Working with Photo-Sourced Textures
- Efficiency and Optimization for Game Engines
- Companion Resources and Sample Files
(Note: chapter titles for Section III’s later chapters and the additional topics are reconstructed from available previews since a full official TOC wasn’t publicly listed — let me know if you’d like me to try pulling a more exact chapter breakdown from a library catalog or the publisher’s page.)